I don’t know about you, but that sound, that iconic roar, gets my blood pumping and the chills running through my body! And well, it just CAN’T be as bad as Roland Emmerich’s 1998 abomination or Godzilla 1985: The Legend Is Reborn which is still one of only about 20 films I have ever walked out of/ejected from my (then) VCR.

Peter Gabriel points out something that very few of the stories about Nelson Mandela’s passing are focusing on: reconciliation. In a world where there’s so much recrimination, so much anger, so much partisan fighting, bickering and warfare, we have just lost a man who reconciled with those who not only put him in prison but who ran a system of government that systematically brutalized and murdered thousands and thousands of black South Africans.

Think about what that took. What strength of character he must have had to endure decades of brutal imprisonment only to emerge, lead his people to freedom, become the president of a new South Africa and lead a process of reconciliation. Truly an amazing man.

Like this:

I know it was only a day ago, but in today’s short news cycle, maybe I should remind you…remember when I reflected a little bit about the racist language and stunning inability of some on the far right to understand historical context and to know when certain things are inappropriate?

Well, guess who’s putting their foot in their mouth, again. Yep, it’s the far right GOP’s #2 moron (Sarah Palin is always #1, IMHO) Rick Santorum. Speaking on The O’Reilly Factor (and following another incredibly stupid comment by Bill O), Santorum decided that directly after lauding the (very) recently deceased Nelson Mandela, it was the right time to draw a parallel between Mandela’s struggle against Apartheid and the GOP’s “struggle” against Obamacare and “the ever increasing size of government.”

Like this:

So that’s it, I guess. The US is drawn into what’s pretty much universally being called the 2014 Group of Death ( a case could be made for Group D, but the presence of Costa Rica pretty much erases that idea). For the uninitiated, ‘Group of Death’ is a phrase coined in 1970 for Group 3 of the World Cup which featured defending champions England, eventual 1970 champs Brazil, Czechoslovakia, and Romania. Thanks to the genius of Eddie Izzard, some have taken to referring to the easiest group in a given tournament as the Group of Cake. Why? Well, watch this and then read on.

Yes, well… So according to FIFAs world rankings (generally derided as bullshit, but not so much that it really matters in this instance) Germany is the 2nd best team in the world and Portugal is #5. While the US is 14th and Ghana 10 places lower, that’s really not much of a difference and the US have been dumped out of the last two World Cups by the Black Stars.

Of course that’s all sports’ equivalent of ancient history. To advance past the group stage in 2014, the US needs to fare better than both Germany and Portugal. Stat guru Nate Silver has Portugal’s chances of advancing as being quite close to those of the US and I guess he figures that both will lose to Germany and both will have a tough match against Ghana. That’s as may be and anything can happen in the next 7 months (maybe Ronaldo decides he would rather paint. What? It could happen!) But still…Ugh.

As for the aforementioned easier group? Well, look no further than Group E, where France is, appropriately, in the Group of (Let Them Eat) Cake.